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Allardyce: This can’t happen if Sunderland are to survive

Date published: Wednesday 30th December 2015 8:45

Sam Allardyce says Sunderland will face a huge task to survive if the gap between points accrued and games played ever reaches double figures.

Sunderland host Liverpool at the Stadium of Light on Wednesday evening languishing inside the Premier League relegation zone on the back of four successive defeats, a run which has left them five points adrift of safety.

Their current haul of just 12 points from 18 games is close to the point where Allardyce believes their task would become near-impossible, and that is something he knows they need to start putting right now with time fast running out.

Allardyce said: “The gap between games and points cannot get into double figures. That would be a huge task. You’d be asking a club to win three or four games on the trot.

“It’s happened at this club, it’s happened to many, many clubs, but it’s not the position you want to be in as a manager, having to win four games out of six when you have never done it in the entire season.

“For us, it’s about making sure we keep the gap and close that gap consistently over the Christmas and New Year period, where we chip away and chip a point here and a point back there and we start closing that gap as quickly as we can.

“It’s exactly what I did at Blackburn when I got there and by the time there were two games left, we were safe. That’s the best way to do it and it does relieve the pressure if you do it like that, chipping away here and there and not looking for miraculous runs of results.”